First day in Western Nebraska

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airmedic1

Active member
I'm a little disappointed, I've been hearing there are more pheasants this year but my experience yesterday does not indicate that is correct.
I hunted a half section of harvested milo with plenty of grain on the ground, harvested corn one one side and wheat stubble on the other side and never saw anything!
I moved to 160 acres of knee high wheat stubble with harvested corn beside the field. Nothing!
Last place was a tree row on private ground that has ALWAYS produced a bird or two and still nothing! My dogs never even seemed interested!
It might be a long year but I'm going out again today.
 
I drove from my place in NWKS to Cheyenne a few weeks ago taking mostly the untraveled back roads and both coming and going I didn’t see a single bird.
It is quite concerning as just a few years ago there was a plentiful supply all through the Imperial to Oglalla area.
I’m sure it is good to get out just the same. Hope you find some today!
Good luck!
 
I hunted the opener last Saturday in SW Nebraska, spent the afternoon driving around walk in areas. Drove a total of 80 miles and didn't see any birds along the roads or hunters either. I bagged 2 on private land in the morning and that was the only birds I saw all day. Pretty tough going again this year looks like.
 
I went out again yesterday and hunted a patch of knee high wheat stubble that has always been good in the past and then a private ground patch that has always produced before. I saw one rooster and one hen. Didn’t have a show at the rooster. Guess I’m going to have to do some traveling!
 
I live in Wyoming and use to hunt western and southwestern Nebraska a lot. I grew up in Nebraska and never missed opening day in 30 years. I’m not even going to Nebraska this year, waste of time. I talked with people that hunted last couple weekends with same results, no birds anywhere, just predators, coyotes and coons. My only choice locally is Wyomings pen raised birds, great program and they been doing it for 50 years. But they are pen raised birds. I will be going to South Dakota again this year, Nebraska game and fish doesn’t get it or doesn’t care.
 
Hunted hard today and bird numbers are definitely not where they were six years ago in the large swath of country I covered. There’s also a ton of corn up and with all the rain I wonder when or if it will get picked. Hunted with four GSP’s two veterans and two rookies but they all can find birds and it was a grind. Had a few hiccups where one of my females would point a rooster and just as I would get to within 15 yards or so bum rush and flush them. Cost me several shots today since I’m not going to reward that behavior but overall looking rough in western Nebraska… luckily the sharpies are doing ok.
 

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A few days late to this party but I have been out of town.
Spoke to the farmer that I have known for 30+ years in SW NEB. He told me tough hunting due to some late harvesting , reduction of habitat and just not ideal weather condition when it was most important. Therefore not alot of bird sighting while in the fields. However, good dogs and lots of boot miles could produce a few birds. I have always hunted his land with public walk in fields to fill in the last day. He gave me a similar report last year and it proved accurate. I will wait until he gives me a more promising report to really hit it hard. This year will be more like scouting around between NE Colorado and SW Neb. I do enjoy just being out and letting my dogs get the bugs out from a long summer. Beats the couch
 

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We hunted from Republican city to just west of McCook in public areas and it truly sucked. I will give kudos to Neb Game and fish as we walked miles of beautiful habitat every day but few birds to be found. The only question I have is with all that habitat, why have they failed to restore the bird numbers?
 
Know what, my son reported that a bunch of his buddies with 5 dogs when out to SW NEB and after three days in chasing the birds, they got about 25 in total. Im having a hard time believe the story but perhaps they worked it real hard. These guys are real hard core guys. All in public land suppose :cry:;):unsure:
I manage to go out to NE Colorado for a dog walk and saw a few and missed a couple of roosters that we should have bagged. The cover looked good as well.
 
Seawolftoo said:
We hunted from Republican city to just west of McCook in public areas and it truly sucked. I will give kudos to Neb Game and fish as we walked miles of beautiful habitat every day but few birds to be found. The only question I have is with all that habitat, why have they failed to restore the bird numbers?
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I’m not a game biologist but I suspect it is a long list of things including but not limited to a couple of bad winters, a couple years of drought, some really bad hail storms, and a lack of food close to those areas of good cover!
I have a full section of private CRP that I’m the only one that can hunt it. Several years ago I could walk in any one of the quarters and shoot a limit of pheasants in 45 minutes. It was great cover, waist and chest high grasses with corn on all sides. A hail storm went through and the grass was only 6” tall and it has only now got back to knee high. Years of limited rain fall and the farmers not planting corn or soybeans but sunflowers and winter wheat and leaving the ground fallow every other years has really hampered its comeback.
I hunted an inside 160 yesterday, best looking cover I have seen this year but it was entirely surrounded by winter wheat on all sides. I never saw a single bird! The closest corn or beans was over a mile away.

The other thing that occurs is the Game and Parks will sign a landowner up for 5 year contracts to be in the CRP-MAP access program and the wheat stubble program. In fact, this year they are offering a $25 per acre bonus if you sign for five years rather than one year at a time. I guess it is administratively easier but that is why you get this. The money goes out but we, the hunters get nothing for it! What can you hunt here?
I don’t blame the farmers, they are just trying to make a living, I blame the Game and Parks, they are the ones that screwed the pooch on this. They can advertise and boast they have this many acres but what good is it when it looks like this?
 

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The other thing Nebraska Game and Fish refuses to acknowledge is the predator impact. They say predator control doesn’t work, then why do other states do it and have pheasants? Then they’ll tell you pheasant aren’t a native species anyway. They really could care less if Nebraska has any pheasants.
 
airmedic1 said:
I’m not a game biologist but I suspect it is a long list of things including but not limited to a couple of bad winters, a couple years of drought, some really bad hail storms, and a lack of food close to those areas of good cover!
I have a full section of private CRP that I’m the only one that can hunt it. Several years ago I could walk in any one of the quarters and shoot a limit of pheasants in 45 minutes. It was great cover, waist and chest high grasses with corn on all sides. A hail storm went through and the grass was only 6” tall and it has only now got back to knee high. Years of limited rain fall and the farmers not planting corn or soybeans but sunflowers and winter wheat and leaving the ground fallow every other years has really hampered its comeback.
I hunted an inside 160 yesterday, best looking cover I have seen this year but it was entirely surrounded by winter wheat on all sides. I never saw a single bird! The closest corn or beans was over a mile away.

The other thing that occurs is the Game and Parks will sign a landowner up for 5 year contracts to be in the CRP-MAP access program and the wheat stubble program. In fact, this year they are offering a $25 per acre bonus if you sign for five years rather than one year at a time. I guess it is administratively easier but that is why you get this. The money goes out but we, the hunters get nothing for it! What can you hunt here?
I don’t blame the farmers, they are just trying to make a living, I blame the Game and Parks, they are the ones that screwed the pooch on this. They can advertise and boast they have this many acres but what good is it when it looks like this?
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Weather I'm sure has a lot to do with it. We did notice a lot of CRP that had been grazed and apparently during nesting season as it had grown back quite a bit. I agree that no need to brag about acres in the program when emergency grazing makes the ground unusable for hunting. Someone in gummit should be smart enough to demand if taking money for a program that the benefit to the public is provided. Its pretty frustrating to walk a property and find cow crap everywhere and no birds
We walked 3-5 miles every day and hardly saw any birds except a few covey of Quail
 
Bigdave said:
The other thing Nebraska Game and Fish refuses to acknowledge is the predator impact. They say predator control doesn’t work, then why do other states do it and have pheasants? Then they’ll tell you pheasant aren’t a native species anyway. They really could care less if Nebraska has any pheasants.
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I knew we had been lied to when I saw the Thanksgiving notice that they were releasing birds to have some to shoot.

That non native species results still in a large amount of tourism dollars that pays their salaries. I suspect that predators is part of the problem for why the species never rebounds. They need help and some more releases to build things back up
 
Having worked in Neb in the mid 90's and hunting it since, weather and predators do play major factors on bird numbers. The habitat is generally there unless they allow the haying and grazing. But i have also noticed farming practices have changed by removing any non productive lands to planted meaning no more fences rows and waste lands. Another aspect that i have not researched and am not very knowledgeable on is the chem ready crops that from my understanding are insect resistant. I don't know if that kills the insects if they feed on the crops or not, but if it does then that takes away a major food source for phez and quail chicks. Not sure this has any merit or not but makes me wonder.
 
Deer will not eat roundup ready soybeans. I suspect it's less than a good idea for us. The lack of buffers around ditches and buffers around fields for certain and mowing instead of burning same off are likely contributors as well
 
Season before last, I had a NE game warden tell me to carry buckshot and shoot any coyotes I see. He was dead serious. Said they’re one of the key reasons bird numbers are bad.
 
Hedgerow said:
Season before last, I had a NE game warden tell me to carry buckshot and shoot any coyotes I see. He was dead serious. Said they’re one of the key reasons bird numbers are bad.
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That's not a bad idea but I think the complete lack of habitat would be my main focus if I was working for nebraska game and parks
 
Hedgerow said:
Season before last, I had a NE game warden tell me to carry buckshot and shoot any coyotes I see. He was dead serious. Said they’re one of the key reasons bird numbers are bad.
Click to expand...
I can see them being a problem when it is nesting season but adult birds are pretty smart as you seldom find piles of pheasant feathers in the field where predators have gotten them.
 
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